


Small Mercies in an Unhappy Ending

by liz_marcs



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen, Heartbreak, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 17:36:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liz_marcs/pseuds/liz_marcs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s maybe a small mercy that it’s an answer she’ll never know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Mercies in an Unhappy Ending

Jeff’s Latest is nice. She’s beautiful. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s charming. She’s ambitious. She’s got her life together.  
  
She’s everything Annie is not.  
  
The Latest is what some people might call good people.  
  
Annie wishes she wasn’t.

  
*********

She knew before anyone else about The Latest. Jeff had quietly pulled her aside one day and asked if they could meet. From the look on his face, Annie knew the news would be Not Good.  
  
She agreed anyway, although her heart didn’t skip a beat like it usually did whenever Jeff suggested they do something alone together.

  
*********

The high-end restaurant Jeff took her to was a surprise. That Jeff acted like a gentleman — holding doors open for her, pulling her chair out for her — was even more so. It had confused her because it looked a lot like a date, and for a moment she let herself hope.  
  
After the entrees were ordered and their drinks delivered, Jeff hunched forward and started talking.  
  
That’s when Annie knew it wasn’t a date.

  
*********

She said all the right things.  
  
 _It’s okay. You don’t owe me anything. Shouldn’t you be talking to Britta, because she’s the one who actually dated you._  
  
 _I’m happy for you._  
  
It wasn’t until she crawled into bed later that night that she realized Jeff picked the restaurant because he figured the high-class surroundings would be a deterrent to her making a scene.  
  
Before her realization, she was just heartbroken. After, she was both heartbroken and hurt.

  
*********

Two weeks after Jeff introduced The Latest to the group, Annie found out that The Latest was only two years older than she was.  
  
That day easily ranks as the worst post-rehab day in her life so far.

  
*********

Her friends look at her with sympathy, and sometimes like she’s a ticking time bomb. But she smiles and nods and says it’s okay. She’s long over her silly schoolgirl crush. Just ask Abed. He knows.  
  
The looks don’t stop and she finds herself measuring every word she says, over-thinking every action, worrying that people will believe she’s up to something every time she and Jeff spend more than five minutes alone together.  
  
Funny thing. If she explodes, it won’t be because of Jeff and The Latest. It’ll be because of the pressure her friends are putting on her.

  
*********

She gets accepted into the criminal justice grad program at Colorado Technical University.  
  
Annie thoughtfully toys with the corner of her information packet and wonders if she’d feel something other than relief if her restaurant meeting with Jeff two months ago had turned out to be a real date.  
  
It’s maybe a small mercy that it’s an answer she’ll never know.

  
*********

One month into her grad program, Abed calls to tell her that Jeff and The Latest are over. Abed pauses after he drops the bomb, and Annie feels obligated to murmur something sympathetic. After a moment of awkwardness, she and Abed play catch-up. There is news about her Greendale friends, and news about Annie's latest adventures as a new-in-town grad student.

Somewhere during the information exchange, Abed asks if she'll make the trip to Greendale for the annual Halloween shenanigans. Annie makes her excuses — her master's program is difficult and all-consuming, she can't get the extended time off from work she'd need to make the trip there and back, she already has plans with this guy she just started dating — for not being able to make it this year. 

She promises instead to make a special guest appearance during Christmas break, provided Abed's willing to roll out the futon for her and provided his new roommate has no objections to a relative stranger taking over the living room for a few days.

Abed hums in agreement, and possibly understanding.    

After Annie hangs up the phone, she pauses and silently wishes she could live two lives. She even cries a little.  
  
Then she settles down at her computer and gets back to work.


End file.
